Lightsaber color selector

[George Hadley] developed a nice setup to control the color of a replica Lightsaber. A small PCB houses a PIC 18F2221 and three switching transistors for the colors. A powerful LED resides in the tip of the handle, lighting up the diffuser that makes up the blade. But our favorite part is the control scheme. He’s embedded a small RGB LED in the handle, giving feedback as to which color of light can currently be adjusted (red, green, or blue). One button scrolls through the colors and a slide potentiometer adjusts that them.

We wouldn’t go as far as calling this a Halloween prop, we think it’s better suited for serious replica builds. But it would make an amazing addition to the little one’s costume. See it in action after the break.

Ok this is awesome. There is something to be said for “rapid prototyping”. Something to be said for deadbugging , bread boarding, Proto board etc . But nothing really compares to taking it to the true “prototype” level with pcb , smt parts, and a professional looking result.

@Spork: I had tried that at first. Tragically, however, the leds were not manufactured with tight enough tolerances (or something) and the string looked more like christmas lights than a single, coherent color.